it was forty pounds a-year worse since he had
first practised it. On another occasion he observed, begging was in modern times
scarcely the profession of a gentleman; and that, if he had twenty sons, he
would not easily be induced to breed one of them up in his own line. When or
where this laudator temporis acti closed his wanderings, the author never heard
with certainty; but most probably, as Burns says,
 
- he died a cadger-powny's death,
At some dike side.
 
The author may add another picture of the same kind as Edie Ochiltree and Andrew
Gemmells; considering these illustrations as a sort of gallery, open to the
reception of anything which may elucidate former manners, or amuse the reader.
    The author's contemporaries at the university of Edinburgh will probably
remember the thin, wasted form of a venerable old Bedesman, who stood by the
Potterrow-Port, now demolished, and, without speaking a syllable, gently
inclined his head, and offered his hat, but with the least possible degree of
urgency, towards each individual who passed. This man gained, by silence and the
extenuated and wasted appearance of a palmer from a remote country, the same
tribute which was yielded to Andrew Gemmells' sarcastic humour and stately
deportment. He was understood to be able to maintain a son a student in the
theological classes of the University, at the gate of which the father was a
mendicant. The young man was modest and inclined to learning, so that a student
of the same age, and whose parents were rather of the lower order, moved by
seeing him excluded from the society of other scholars when the secret of his
birth was suspected, endeavoured to console him by offering him some occasional
civilities. The old mendicant was grateful for this attention to his son, and
one day, as the friendly student passed, he stooped forward more than usual, as
if to intercept his passage. The scholar drew out a halfpenny, which he
concluded was the beggar's object, when he was surprised to receive his thanks
for the kindness he had shown to Jemmie, and at the same time a cordial
invitation to dine with them next Saturday, »on a shoulder of mutton and
potatoes,« adding, »ye'll put on your clean sark, as I have company.« The
student was strongly tempted to accept this hospitable proposal, as many in his
place would probably have done; but, as the motive might have been capable of
misrepresentation, he thought it most prudent, considering the character and
circumstances of the old man,